Norfolk Southern Settles Lawsuit

INDIANAPOLIS -- Norfolk Southern Corp. has agreed to a multimillion-dollar settlement of landowners' lawsuits against a unit of the United States' fourth-largest railroad company that lays fiber-optic cable next to rail lines, according to a wire service.

The Norfolk, Va.-based transportation company agreed to pay as much as $32,000 for every mile of fiber-optic cable laid along 60,000 landowners' property in 15 states, including Georgia, according to papers filed in federal court in Indianapolis.

Norfolk Southern officials had argued that its Thoroughbred Technology and Telecommunications Inc. unit could lay its digital network lines along railroad track rights-of-way without paying landowners to do so. Fiber-optic lines are used to move high-speed voice and data information.

Norfolk Southern formed the unit in 1999 to sell fiber-optic and microwave services to telephone, Internet and cable TV providers.

Norfolk Southern spokesman Rudy Husband said the settlement amounts to ''several million'' dollars but would not be more specific. A federal judge in Indianapolis will decide in August whether to approve the settlement.

Timothy Elzinga, an Indiana farmer, sued last August after he said he found that Norfolk Southern workers were about to bury cables along a rail line on his property without his permission.

The suit was turned into a class-action case on behalf of all affected property owners. The settlement was announced to landowners May 31.